Neuratelia cornuta Polevoi, 2023

Polevoi, A. V., 2023, Two new species of Neuratelia Rondani (Diptera: Mycetophilidae) from Chukotka, North-East Russia, Far Eastern Entomologist 469, pp. 13-20 : 17-19

Neuratelia cornuta Polevoi , sp. n.

https://zoobank.org/NomenclaturalActs/ 20A78C7F-0169-4721-A162-FC81E567ADAB

Figs 8–13

TYPE MATERIAL. Holotype – ♂, Russia: Chukotka Autonomuos District, Anadyr

River, 30 km east of Krasnoe Lake, 64.72°N, 175.21°E, h= 10 m, yellow pan trap, 27. VI –19.VII

2014, leg. A. Barkalov [ SZMN]. Paratype: Russia: same data as holotype, 1♂ [ SZMN] .

DIAGNOSTIC CHARACTERS. Medium-sized species with black body, yellow legs and transparent wings. Distinguished from other Neuratelia species by peculiar structure of male terminalia: dorsoapical lobe of gonocoxite bearing two horn-like processes, kidney-shaped gonostylus, and relatively short saber-like parameres.

DNA BARCODE BIN REGISTRY. Specimen failed to give a barcode compliant sequence and has not been assigned a BIN (BOLD, 2022b).

DESCRIPTION. Male (n=2).

Head black. Three ocelli in a shallow triangular arrangement. Lateral ocellus separated from eye margin by a distance 1.1 of its diameter. Face slightly widened below, clypeus transverse more than two times wider than high, both with dense brownish hairs. Mouthparts and palpi dark brown. Antenna uniformly dark brown Flagellum evenly tapering to apex.

Fifth flagellomere 1.5–1.9 times as long as broad.

Thorax. Mesonotum black, thinly dusted, and more or less shining in the posterior part.

Scutellum and pleurae black. Laterotergite with setae and mediotergite with setae in lower part. Halter yellow.

Wing. Length 4.93–5.03 [4.98] mm. Membrane with micro- and macrotrichia. Veins brownish, costal and radial veins somewhat darker. Veins setose, except bare radial-medial

(r-m) and basal transversal (tb) crossveins. Costa produces very little beyond the tip of R5.

Sc reaches costa at about one fifth between Rs and tip of R1. Sc-r placed well before the middle of Sc. R5 sinuate. Rs about as long as cross-vein r-m. M1 basally obsolete. Base of posterior (M 4 -CuA) fork lies distally to r-m and proximally to the apex of Sc.

Legs. Coxae yellow, hind coxa basally infuscated. Trochanters brown. Femora, tibiae and tibial spurs yellow, tarsi seem considerably darker because of dense setae. Fore tibia with 1–

2 pd, and 0– 3 p. Mid tibia with 4–7 a, 1–3 av, 5–7 p and 1–3 pd. Hind tibia with 0–2 av, 8–

10 ad (+ 0–2 at apex), 7–10 pd, 3–6 p, 0–1 pv. Ratio of tibia to basitarsus for fore, mid and hind leg: 0.99–1.05 [1.02]; 1.32–1.35 [1.33]; 1.61–1.76 [1.68].

Abdomen dark brown with brownish hairs.

Terminalia brown. Gonocoxite with dorsoapical lobe bearing two apical horn-like processes – elongated dorsal and shorter ventral ( Figs 8, 10 ). Ventral margin of gonocoxite with ventroapical horn-like lobes and subtriangular submedian lobes, both covered with setae

( Fig. 8 ). Tergite 9 rectangular, with straight apical margin and wide triangular basal incision about one third of tergite height. Cerci well-developed, protruding over tergite 9 ( Fig. 9 ).

Gonostylus kidney-shaped with rather deep rounded apical depression and numerous setae,

some of them rising from distinctly protruding basements ( Fig. 11 ). Parameres relatively short,

sabre-like, only slightly protruding over ventroapical margin of gonocoxite ( Figs 12, 13 ).

HABITAT AND BIOLOGY. Adults collected in hummocky tundra along the river bank.

Larval biology unknown.

DISTRIBUTION. So far known only from the type locality in the North-East Russia .

ETYMOLOGY. The species epithet (from Latin cornutus – horned, having horn or hornlike appendages) refers to distinctive horn-like processes on dorsoapical lobe of gonocoxite.

dorsal view; 10 – terminalia, lateral view; 11 – gonostylus, mesial view; 12 – aedeagal complex,

ventral view; 13 – aedeagal complex, lateral view. Abbreviations: cerc – cercus; gst – gonostylus; dlg – dorsoapical lobe of gonocoxite; vlg – ventroapical lobe of gonocoxite; par –

paramere; tg9 – tergite 9. Scale bar = 0.2 mm.

New species may potentially represent the Nearctic elements in the fauna of Chukotka,

hence comparison with North American taxa deserves special attention. The genus Neuratelia in the Nearctic region is rather poorly documented and has not been dealt with for a long time. The latest key and descriptions date to the first half of XX century (Fisher, 1937;

Shaw 1941). Of 13 known species, N. desidiosa Johannsen, 1912 and N. eminens Johannsen,

1912 were described by females, which, at present, can’t be reliably associated with males.

Neuratelia sayi (Aldrich, 1897) and N. distincta (Garrett, 1925) are characterized by missing vein sc-r and costa not produced beyond the tip of R 5 (Fisher, 1937), features that are not present in newly described species. As it can be judged from available terminalia figures and textual descriptions (Johannsen, 1912; Garrett, 1925a, b; Van Duzee, 1928; Fisher,

1937; Show, 1941), other species of Nearctic Neuratelia are distinctly different from the taxa described here. The American records of a tentatively circumpolar N. nemoralis are questionable (Kurina et al., 2015), so, for now, it appears that Palaearctic and Nearctic faunas of Neuratelia have no species in common.

Figures

Figs 8–13. Neuratelia cornuta sp. n., male. 8 – terminalia, ventral view; 9 – terminalia,